


Missing Piece

by Typosmyown



Series: Piece of You [1]
Category: One Direction
Genre: Harry pov, Louis-centric, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:00:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 16,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2564114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Typosmyown/pseuds/Typosmyown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry is stalked by paparazzi, Ben Winston, who steals something from Harry. That aside, this is just another fated, Larry love story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thelookstheyshare.tumblr.com](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Thelookstheyshare.tumblr.com).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's dressing for his masquerade gala amidst reflections.

Harry knew the invite would lead to two types of guests. Well mostly. Aside from a few trusted friends and some invited press, there would be two types of people who would attend. 

The simple invite was officially published in a small, nearly extinct, printed newspaper that was only surviving by holding onto a thread and being the only local paper in Harry's hometown of Cheshire. Nostagic, sentimental at heart, Harry gave the paper the business. As obsolete as the print media approach was the news of the invitation spread like wildfire because, well because, obsession over Harry Styles was a global phenomenon.

"Harry's Styles invites you to join him for a night of mystery and masquarade..."

Two types would respond. It was certain. 

Harry hoped there would be enough attendees in the "first 500 to come" guest-limit to have a chance encounter with the one type of person Harry was searching for. It may have been too many romantic movies that had lead him to believe that he would have a chance at finding what he needed. These kind of people would be people like him. Young, optimistic, romantics. Girls, mostly would reply, but he hoped not exclusively. Gender was not that important; he was searching for someone like himself who believed in love. He hoped guests would come believing they had the power within them to capture his heart. That was his need. His heart needed to find a refuge someone strong enough to weather the storm of his fame. 

The second type, "type two" was the type from which he feared and fleed. Who were these people, he wondered about them often. They had made this sadness descend upon him. Why did they have no heart? No soul? There seemed to be so many of them. They hunted and stalked him. They preyed upon his weaknesses and published them for profit and their own twisted gain.

They showed up at concerts. Signings, press releases. At his home. At the corner coffee shop, the dry cleaner. Hell, he'd even had one show up at his doctor's office in disguise. Pleading for his attention, quick to become indignant when he occassionally asked for dignity of giving him privacy. Did the world really need to see him when he felt so green he was certain he'd grown gills, vomitting in the bag he held between his legs at his doctor's office. Really? 

The descent and the decrepted. Harry's invite would bring them both in droves. Like Cinderella going to her ball, Harry was hopeful for the best. Yearning and needing this.

But it wasn't always so. Not in the beginning. Harry dressed himself with his slow, methodical thoughtfulness and recalled just how it began. How he became such a celebrity.

***

Harry dressed for his event and he recalled that it began for him in 2010 at the audition for the Xfactor. He was put through. 

He was both surprised and elated at the offer to go on in the competition with three other lads as a band of four. It seemed like the dream he could have only hope for. In the beginning he pinched himself a lot. Was this real?

Zayn, Niall and Liam quickly became Harry's family. They together were One Direction and an immediate global phenomenon. 

The four of them had become connected fast and best mates immediately. They were all talented, honest, hard working. Nevertheless, the honeymoon was over in a year. The problem set in as their fame grew and the unwanted attention, both good and bad became a lazer upon them. This was not like precedents set before, before everyone carried a camera, this was a new era of public scrutiny. Gone like the print press was the editor, the editing process, and with it civility and restraint. Even the ordinary people didn't feel like they needed to self-edit. Media and fame was a new world, a harsher world. 

The scrutiny about One Direction fell on Harry. 

*** 

Harry was the youngest in the band, although to the world at large it seemed Niall was the baby, but it was indeed Harry. Harry felt an immediate need when he met Niall to be Brave. Niall was the light. Harry recognized this instantly when they came together as a group. He saw Niall was like a flame of a candle, bright and warm yet vulnerable to something even as soft as a breeze. 

Harry stood before a floor length mirror in his expansive room picking through the mounds of costume attire brought for him by his stylist and he sorted through an assortment of capes and cloaks. Finding one he liked he swooped it out and around his shoulders with a flare like the masked Zorro preparing for a ride. The fanning cloak brushed air across a nearby candle and the flame was snuffed out. 

The irony between the connection of Harry's reflections about Niall and light of the candle, it's symbolism with a snuffed flame all mixed in Harry's thoughts. Harry needed to find something brave in himself to keep Niall sustained and the light aflame. 

*** 

Zayn's was the siren of the four. Harry's contemplative journey into their beginnings took him to that idea. Zayn's voice would simply lift all of theirs. A diva. In the era of the ever growing scrutiny Harry learned that Zayn, their power-diva on stage, was so completey shy and mysterious that he seemed at times lost. Almost sad. Harry tried to abate this by being Funny. A partner in crime, someone that Zayn could bond with and be free. For a while it worked and the band was a success.

The humor-defense stopped far too often when Zayn needed it most because Harry would simply lock up when confronted with people who seemed incapable of being nice. Zayn seemed to get unnecessary negative press because he was misunderstood. Harry would fall back to his core values confronted by the worst of humanity. He would try harder to be nice and maybe, sometimes he'd have success. Usually he'd find that whoever was being an affront would shift attention over to Zayn and given the shy nature of Zayn it would end with Zayn appearing more aloof or disconnected. 

Harry wanted to be a catalyst for Zayn's humor and confidence. So desperately he needed the world to see the playful imaginative side of Zayn. It just didn't always happen naturally because Harry was deeply inclined to play nice and some witty, defensive remark would only occur to him hours later Ingrained in his personality was this gentle manner.

Harry shifted through a pile of masks and found one that exemplified his reminiscence about his times of failures at the face of negative press with Zayn. The mask Harry chose represented to Harry a vague picture of what people didn't know. The white mask had a large, pointy, beak like nose and a sadness to the carving around the eyes. The sadness appeared like the eyes were weeping. 

Harry stood before the mirror and put on the mask. His mind drifted to the thought of Liam. 

*** 

Liam. Who could ever know the depth to which Liam was Sweet? Only his mates, his bros, the other three knew how much Liam was so, so very kind. There was a funny thing about Liam; he was sweet and yet tremendously articulate while not astute of how he was percieved. Early on in the band's career Liam's awkward side, promoted by his leadership role and his articulate nature exposed him. His errors became fonder for the haters and, Liam being so sweet, was usually defenseless. It was not so different in some ways than how things were with Zayn or Niall. Or Harry. All of them lacked a sass factor. They were defenseless like kittens. 

In Liam's case he simply just couldn't understand that his honesty and integrity wasn't his friend in dealing with the media. In a word, Harry thought Liam was too serious and practical. Serious, Harry thought as he turned to select some shoes and tried to look for the one pair of shoes in a large collection set out for himself on this night that was anything other than serious. If nothing else maybe Liam, who always wore some sort of training or "serious" work boot or hiking type shoe would maybe see the whimsy in Harry's shoe and take note. Maybe he could be a bit lighter, more free. 

Harry found a pair of ankle high boots with a faux-leopard pattern and put the shoes on. He turned away from his thoughts about the past of One Direction at the pinnacle before he sabotaged them, and turned to see his reflection in the floor length mirror. He had to admit to himself, he was stunning.

Harry stood there and drank in his image. Harry had been described as a work of art. So many times he'd read how his lips were the color of succulent berries. His completion compared to cream. His eyes? Don't even get that subject started. It would fill chapters of a book. Despite what he could see in the reflection his ego was not inflated. He was really just a boy from Cheshire who was lonely. One who had too much fame too fast and too many expectations. It took him down. It took them all down. 

It had been a year of break and still Harry was hurting and hounded. The press never stopped chasing and prying. Tonight he donned his mask. It was his last step in an evolution. Deperate and nearly broken, this party was Harry's last attempt to move what started as narcotic love before it fell into something like hate into something else again that was maybe true. Maybe, maybe...the masks would allow people to be true. Maybe his exposed heart in his invitation would bring the one. Maybe he'd fine his true love. 

Harry left his room and descended the stairs to his masquerade ball which was in full swing when he joined.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mystery draws Harry away from his party.

Harry didn't know why he left. Maybe it was the realization hit him that he'd made a stupid mistake...the realization, then the nausea, then the need to escape. 

Once again just too trusting. Harry thought, as he kicked himself about his gullible nature and the pain it caused him. Who gets stalked by a pap and yet offers them his untouched burger? Who gets trapped in a mob of fans in the rain on their one and only chance in countless days to exercise and yet stops to sign 500 autographs while his rare chance for exercise slips away? Who is treated time and time again, like "celebrity" is license to be harassed and yet is still nice to all, even the paparazzi and trolls? 

Harry. Harry does. And still he foolishly offers open invitations for all to come to his party, enjoy his food, drink...share his success. And Harry got nothing but more fror his efforts than a lot more of what he wanted most to avoid. His party made his loneliness deepen.

Harry only wanted a chance at love.

His chance failed even though Zayn was there. Happy and lovey with his girl. Liam, same. Niall? Right. Niall was just, well Niall. Yet Harry felt lonely.

Even dear trusted friends, Nick and Ed, were not helping with the pain that filled Harry's heart. It wasn't supposed to go like this. Deepening pain, his feelings of being alone penetrating like an unshakable cold.

Harry walked to the top floor of his monsterous large home to find peace and solitude from his flawed, failed plan. He looked out at the fields behind his large country manor like searching a dark well for a deep place to drown sorrows. When had the rain started? He wondered. He wondered if this party idea was really as bad an idea as the lads joked lovingly about or whether it was horribly worse. At least that is the way it made him feel at this moment, letting the masses into his home, his searching, the emptiness. What was he thinking? What was he looking for? 

Off in the distance he saw lights where lights were not supposed to be. It drew Harry's attention because he was desperate for any distraction and because it was so very odd. The flicker of lights. Who was making them? They flicked with the allure of fireflies in the distance.

****


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry ventures out of his home during a storm.

Harry found himself walking in the rain away from his mansion and cursing himself with each step. Again, what was he thinking? 

It had been at least been dry in his home...not that it wasn't completely and utterly miserable at "The Mistaken Party". He was at the very least dry and comfortable inside his massive home.

But now he walked in the dark, the pouring rain. Some secrete compelling force pulling him out into this mystery. The flashlight he carried to illuminate his path helped him very little and he found himself stumbling in the direction where the odd flicker of light would have come from. At times it disappeared from view if he descended into a lower spot on the grounds as he traversed across his estate. Directionless. Like a hopelessness he felt in his core. 

A few times the dressy shoes he wore failed him and he slipped in the mud. He cursed his stupidity. Why didn't he send security out to investigate? Oh right, they were very busy. Maintaining the guest limit to 500 appeared to be a huge undertaking. And of the guests who did gain entry, Harry felt certain they were mostly the very types he'd been hoping to avoid. His gullibility about love had brought out the worst of the masses and the stalkers.

It was service road across his property that was leading him toward his curiosity Harry realized as he pushed on. That's where the light, two lights actually, came from. His estate was large and this service road, once a back entrance for a staff that may have been numerous when a large family lived at his estate when it was at its prime. The service road was reduced with neglect to not more than a riding path for bikes or horses. Certainly it was never used since Harry had bought the estate although he had walked it once or twice just to investigate the grounds. On those occasion it was sunny and warm. Completely unlike now. 

Harry realized as he walked, the water running down his cape, the mud slick from the rain causing him to slip and struggle not to fall, that all of this was indeed a strong swift psychic kick to the head that it was stupid to be out here. The path he followed was treacherously slippery, the stream beside the path violently,engorged with the storm runoff. This adventure was seeming more and more dangerous. Stupid at the very least. 

For the first time Harry's own mortality occured to him. That seemed odd. He had been so lonely for so long and yet here in the storm, in the relentless rain, he realized he was not safe. Not safe at all. He felt it. The cold. He didn't want the cold and a healthy desire to cast it off filled him. 

Harry was nearly ready to turn for home giving up on these strange flickering of lights, go back to embracing life, seeking love, but when he looked around and searched the distance for the lights from the back of his estate it was difficult to see them now. What happened to the lights? Maybe there were no longer lights on at the back because someone turned them off. No one knew he went out the back door on this adventure. What reason was there to have those lights on when the party was inside? Harry considered the likelihood of wandering in the wrong direction if he stared back blindly. 

Uncertain, Harry stood there debating. Should he turn for home? He leaned toward the smart thing when some force like a hint of a warm breeze pulled him. He turned away from his home once more and took one more step in the direction of his quest.

There it was. A car. The headlights of this car were beaming through the rain and dark. Harry realized upon seeing it that the lights he'd seen from his lofty view at the top floor of his grand home where the lamps of this vehicle. As Harry got closer he could see it had slid from this too, too thin path for an automobile and had landed in the stream bed.  
***


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry encounters a surprise in a storm-raged stream bed.

Harry could not believe he left his own miserably-ill-conceived-truly-painful-party to walk in the pouring rain to seek out the mystery on the isolated grounds distant from his mansion. Yet here he was. 

The storm had become unrelentingly punishing. Harry found himself soaked to the core. His footwear of fashionable leather paddock boots were sloppy with water and mud. His knee length coat, wool, not a waterproof trench, was logged with water because it was unprotected by his shorter top cloak it and weighed heavily on his tall form. And yet still he continued alway from his warm inviting home. Away from his party, his guests. 

It was as if he was drawn out by a magical force, a stirring curiosity, some promise of something warm.

Harry reached a place where he could clearly see from his overlook the vehicle. As he suspected when he first realized it was a car, he discovered it had indeed slid from the unmaintained road and landed in an unfortunate mishap. The auto was nose first in the stream end up on bank of the waterway.

Harry stood above looking down and trying to take the site in. 

He recognized the vehicle, even in the dark and the pouring rain. He'd seen it before. Many times. Too, too many times. He saw the window on the driver's side was coverd with clear plastic which was taped over to seal the broken window. It was a temporary fix perhaps. Harry smiled a bit at that despite his dread at seeing the familiar vehicle. At least the broken window gave him a sense of amusement. 

Then like a flashback he recalled the history behind the broken window.

*** 

It had been about a week before the party when Harry woke at his friend Ed's house with his head throbbing and his throat feeling horribly raw. He realized he'd fallen asleep after a drunken bout of hurling and felt as bad physically as he did emotionally about his behavior prior to his passing out and over-stay. His head was feeling like it was stuffed with cotton. Harry wrote Ed a note and left quietly. 

As he drove home the waves of inebriation began to retake his body. Harry gripped the wheel, tried focus. The waves increased. Realizing he was doomed it was a quick diversion off the road to its edge that allowed Harry not a second to spare before he expelled the little content his body had to offer in the grass. Still drunk. Not a condition for driving. 

Harry wiped his mouth and stood slowly turning to return to his car. It was then that Harry noticed that a vehicle had pulled off behind his. 

The recognition made Harry feel ill all over for a new reason. It was a pap. A familiar and dreadful indivdual that was considered by many celebrities to be sub-human. Barely more than a troll. Ben Winston. 

This troll had probably just caught Harry at his lowest. Something which It had done many times before. Seemingly knowing how to find Harry at his weakest. 

Harry was rooted in his spot considering his options- politely requesting this sub creature respect his dignity or flipping the arse off and pretending he wouldn't burn when he saw the image blazed below tomorrow's headlines. 

Then like an angel sent by the gods another vehicle pulled over to park behind the troll's. 

Harry was greeted at the sight of Zayn walking up to greet him. Zayn. Mysterious, shy Zayn. 

Seeing his mate approach Harry remembered he left Ed's so early given his condition to meet as planned with Zayn for a cuppa. This the coincidence in timing of Zayn's appearance roadside enroute to Harry's was not completely random. 

Harry and Zayn walked toward each other and came to meet a foot or two away from each other and right beside the troll's car. It, the troll Winston, rolled its window up and continued to take pictures. It realized its grotesquely large lens was encumbering its photography and It switched to a small, hand-held video cam. 

Harry and Zayn both noted this nervous behavior by the troll. Zayn nodded his head at It and immediately acknowledged the weary, greenish-color to his dear friend and band mate. He spoke with compassion. 

"You don't look so good mate. Drink much more after I left Ed's last night? Or is that a foolish question?" 

"Maybe" Harry said with such a slurred sheepishness that Zayn was compelled to draw Harry into him for a hug. 

This new low that Harry had slid into was oozing off of Harry. His drunkeness of the night before was a condition of increasing routine. Being papped too often at his worse added to his feeling of self-loathing to a degree that was palpable. 

The concern for Harry's decline, his depressed condition, was the reason for their planned morning rendezvous. It just wasn't supposed to begin with roadside with puking, Harry papped again by a persist troll of epic proportion. 

Zayn had had enough. In a fraction of a second Harry realized the strange thing as Zayn acted impulsively. This impulsive protectiveness came about because this stalking had gone too far too long. 

The band had been broken by the hate. Harry came out about his sexuality and his heart was brutalized by media that had no soul. His decline in the aftermath had put them on hold. A temporary break. In the interim the three of them, Zayn, Niall and Liam tried to stay connected to Harry, encouraging, supportive. But Harry had been in such a decline. He lived for the love of the fans but the media portrayed him as anything he was not. 

Zayn had seen Harry suffer enough for being simply the person he was. Harry was caring, loving, kind and, yes gay. The pain for what just happened roadside wasn't going to happen this time if Zayn could make it stop. 

As Harry leaned into Zayn sobbing about just having been photographed vomiting road side Zayn acted. In a flash Harry realized what was odd about Zayn. He heard the crack, he realized then that Zayn wasn't holding his usual smoke in his hand, but rather he held a metal rod. 

A rod for changing a tire? Who knew. The first hit sent a spiderweb of cracks across the window on the driver's side where they stood. The second made the window go into a softened mess of radiating cracks within cracks. Zayn's third hit, or his fourth, made the window break. Zayn reached into the car protected by his standard issue leather jacket and pulled the lens-heavy prized camera from the car. 

Zayn held the camera up and shoke it for Winston to see. A simple smile developed deviously across Zayn's idealized features. He flipped the troll off then instructed Harry to leave Harry's car and ride along with him. Harry didn't hesitate. He and Zayn left with Harry feeling immediatley better. There would be no pictures of Harry vomiting road side. Zayn wasn't going to let this sort of thing happen to Harry again. 

***

Zayn...roadside...this car...these were the images coming together in Harry's mind as he recognized the wrecked car. It's window which Zayn destroyed was covered over in plastic.

The flashback of memories subsided because Harry's attension was diverted by a flutter of activity on the passenger's side of the vehicle.

His hatred for the vehicle's owner aside, Harry descended the slippery bank, sliding and taking it on his bum. Harry's innate humanity took over where his experience warned him to not go. He had to investigate, make sure the driver, troll or not, was at least alive and okay. Only then could Harry allow himself to be angry...at least try.

He rounded the vehicle and approached the figure he saw standing beside it. 

What the hell was he to do? Harry moved in ready to try to confront, or maybe be at least less than his typically perfectly nice self, if indeed the troll was clearly uninjured. 

Determined to confront this trespass Harry stepped close unheard. He reached out and grabbed a shoulder spinning the standing figure to face him.

If Harry hadn't been so blindly determined, consumed by this unnatural determination, he might have noticed the person beside the car whose shoulder he grabbed was talking into the rear passenger side window where a second person was seated. But he did not. Not until after an illuminating bolt lightning crossed the sky from the storm revealling the mistake did this reality hit Harry.

It was instantaneous. His realization. The troll, the owner of the car, the man who stalked Harry and papped him even when he was violently ill, that person, was not the person had Harry spun to confront in the pouring rain. No. 

That guy, the complete fucking twat was still sitting safe and completely dry in the wrecked car, talking through a slight opening of the rear window. That guy, the slimy troll Ben Winston, was dressed in costume and unharmed. Clearly he was sneaking into Harry's estate intending to crash the party it occured to Harry.

The person who was the driver of the misplaced car, apparently, was the one standing outside of the vehicle. He was not only drenched but also most likely bruised as Harry's hand gripped him and spun him violently. This surpirsed person was someone of a completely different sort than the troll. Harry's hand released with the electricity like that of the storm itself. Face to face in this confrontation it was as much a shock for Harry as it was for the unsuspecting prey.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry confronts. Lightning strikes.

Harry expected to meet a face that he recognized. It was a shock when he realized that the shoulder he had clasped so roughly was not that of It, the despised pap. No. 

The pap who hounded Harry so relentlessly, the one whose car was in the drainage with its cracked window covered with a temporary plastic was seated safely in the back seat. It had been barking out some commands to the person Harry had been on the verge of threatening with assault.

A second flash of lightning crossed the sky again. 

A kinetic feeling traveled through Harry's body when he looked more deeply at person whose shoulder he had grabbed tightly to mistakenly confront. 

Harry took measure of the person standing before him in the rain. Some sort of kinetic energy lingered from the forceful touch. The energy numbed Harry and then warmed him like it was a pleasant discharge from the storm overhead. 

The young man clearly must have been the driver of the car. Perhaps he was part of a plan to sneak the troll in close to the mansion and not bring a car to the attention of outside staff who were security and policing for such attempts. At least that is what Harry surmised when he noticed that his nemesis was clearly dressed to crash the party and yet this lad about Harry's age was dressed simply and too, too lightly in dark jeans and a simple white tee.

The soaking wet driver was shivering. Harry could see that easily and realized he might have contributed to the physiological manifestation. He also recognized that when he released the driver the confronted lad fell backwards and was pressing against the car looking horrified glancing nervously between Harry and the man seated in the warm dry seat of the car behind him.

From inside the car a voice scolding this soaked lad. Outrage was barked out indicating the Troll's dissatisfaction. 

All the determination Harry had to confront, to battle, all of the anger, it disappeared as he looked as this soaking wet shivering lad trapped between Harry and his nemesis .


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fate makes spirits collide.

Harry's face softened and he licked his lips with a sudden compulsion to pull the frighten lad into him, shelter him with his warmth and the waterproof cloak he wore that had been too short on him to keep his coat underneath dry. As little protection as it offered Harry, it would be better used where it was clearly needed.

Harry found his eyes consuming the details that elicited this. 

The trembling lad was slightly built. His collarbones which Harry may have inadvertently marked with his forceful grip were prominent and alluring like something to be investigated with warm lips and tender kisses. 

The soaked through white t-shirt showed all of this about the lad's thin form. This shivering waif had a shapliness to him as if he'd been sculpted to confuse the sensibilities of any gender.

Harry's mask was resting on his head so his face was exposed and dry, mostly, while this lad was drienched in water giving him the appearance as if he was sweat coated from the effects of passionate of sex. The wet sheen on his skin set off the perfection of his cheekbones, his delicate chin, his pert nose, his whimsical eyebrows. His lashes appeared to beam with radiance, it was a side effect from the downpours go rain battling against the thick lashes. Perhaps his eyes were blue. Harry was suddenly aware of his lips. They were pale as if the cold were stripping them of color as he shivered and bit them nervously as he faced Harry. He must have felt the intensity of Harry's stare because he also pressed back harder against the car meanwhile a string of harsh words chastised him from the dry occupant seated within.

Harry took a breath realizing that in his inspection of the beauty before him he had maybe forgotten how to keep breathing. A gulp escaped Harry's throat and he started to speak when the troll within the car lowered his window and pushed hard against the back of the frightened lad, cursing him in what was most definately a string of such insults. The push sent the pinned, frightened lad forward crashing into Harry.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bodies crash together. Harry feels something.

In the slippery, muddy stream, unexpecting and unprepared, Harry felt their bodies meet. He fell backwards with the frighten, shivering lad landing on top of him. 

Harry's thought was not one of offense from their unexpected, clumsy collapse, no, nothing of the sort. Instead Harry immediately thought, "Wow, he's so increadiabley light!"

Harry felt a bubbling of laughter. Something about this shivering lad's body against his made his heart swell with a sense of belonging. A laugh may have been unexpected for this circumstance but something about their forms connecting made this involuntary response of delight escape from Harry.

Harry's laughter ended quickly though as the frightened lad scrambled to regain his feet lifting off of Harry wide-eyed and embarrassed.

The Troll within the vehicle began his evacuation.

"Fucking stupid idiot," the Troll was growling. He flung the door open which knocked the small lad down once more because of the slippery footing and that was all Harry needed to restore the anger he had within him earlier when he came down to confront the trespass upon his property.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry can't let go.

Harry got up from the mud with his resolve set. He saw that this pap who long caused a suffering in him was angrily moving like he was going to add physical assault to the verbal abuse he'd been dealing the drenched, trembling lad. Harry boomed out a warning.

"You stop where you are! You're done, this, this, is done!" Harry's shouted. He felt himself burn with an uncharacteristic boldness like something in the storm had built a flame within him.

Harry stood straight to his full height stepping between the drenched lad and the pap. He was not taking anything more from this sub-creature. He was done with the stalking, the harassing, the abuse. Something perhaps about seeing the disrespect in the way this troll treated his "driver" made it easier for Harry so see the abusive behaviors that needed to be stopped. This wasn't about himself anymore, for Harry it was becoming about humanity and how everyone should treat others with basic fairness and dignity.

The pap looked around Harry searching, scowling at his companion. It was clear he'd intended to vent some anger at the lad. 

"I'm trying to get out of this insufferable mess which that fucking twink put us in!" The pap was huffing with anger and added, "It's as if he deliberatly put the car in the bloody stream!"

Harry found himself blocking the pap's side to side movements to keep himself positioned separating the angry troll and the lad sheltered behind him. The straps of Harry's mask which held the mask perched on top of Harry's head like a strange futuristic hat also kept Harry's peripheral vision restricted. Yet somehow it seemed as if from the moment their two bodies met with their stream-side collapse that he and this "twink" had formed a near psychic connection. He could sense the smaller lad's shifts in position. Harry mirrored every move occurring behind him making his body a shield even though his vision of the moments was impaired.

"Let me collect my, my, him and we'll be going." The troll stated but then with complete audacity he added, "Perhaps someone at your house can assist?"

Harry sensed the lad hiding behind him had frozen in place directly out of view. Without seeing what was the cause Harry felt the lad's sense of trepidation. He didn't want to leave with the troll. Funny thing was, Harry didn't want to let him go either. 

Harry reached a hand behind himself and felt a wet, trembling hand take his. It was so terribly cold. He felt the delicateness of it and his heart panged with a protectiveness and tenderness. He gripped the small hand with a firm gentleness. A squeeze of Harry's large hand alerted the lad to be still. Listen for his resolution. 

"No. You go back the way you came. Alone! You didn't have permission to enter like you did. Your trespass is your problem. Go back the way you came and if you are off my property before my security finds you then I won't press any charges." Harry spoke with new confidence. 

Feeling the small hand he held with his shudder, Harry tightened his hold to prevent accidental loss of contact and he glanced at the rain-soaked lad. The sight made a softness invade his tone, his emotions tamed, but his words were meant to instruct the tresspassing pap, "I'm taking him with me before he perishes from hypothermia. He'll be my guest. I suggest you get moving!" 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry drags a wet treasure back to his home.

Harry didn't wait after he issued his warning. He pulled the trembling lad and made the quickest, most direct trek for his expansive estate residence. He could feel through the contact of their hands alone that the trembling was more and more pronounced, a dangerous shuddering. Harry's...discovery (?), whatever, this lad was suffering. It also seemed quite impossible and yet the storm seemed to have intensified it's deluge. Each step they took in the muddy earth seemed to give way under foot. 

A few times Harry slipped, or the lad. Harry found himself sliding an arm around the smaller one's waist on occasions to offer stability. He tried to pull the rain proof cloak over the lad and considered whether a wool coat which is already wet would help because clearly the paper-thin tee shirt gave his "treasure" no warmth. When their hike required his grasp to loosen, Harry felt himself yearning to resistablished the hold even though this companion offered him no warmth in return. There was just a pull inside Harry, a deep attraction, he could not let go. It was a need. 

They literally fell through the back door into Harry's home. Drenched and both shaking from their exposure, their footing gave way because of the slipperiness of their muddy shoes on a slick stone floor and the fatigue of the sloppy traverse across a length of ungroomed grounds.

Scrambling to his feet and stripping off his cloak Harry got his first look at his unexpected guest the light of the house.

Harry's heart seemed to skip a beat. His breath arrested like it had done out in the storm when he looked at his discovery.. 

Smiling though he was uncontrollably shivering the lad said with a studder, "Thank you for not making me stay out there, Harry. Thank you for letting me get away from him for a little while." 

With the cloak removed, his shoes as well, Harry was feeling the warmth of shelter. Even though his jeans had wicked up moisture and he was somewhat still mostly drenched he felt a burning sensation. It was the vision of this lad that scorched him.

The words his guest spoke were said like they had met before, as if they had known each other. And, yes, Harry was feeling like they had. But for now, all Harry could do was feel the stun of the beauty he'd drug in from the storm.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reintroductions.

The casual familiarity in the soft voice, lingered in Harry's ear. Just the speaking of Harry's name seemed to resonate as if it was purred. 

"M' Louis. Louis Tomlinson." The lad said. As he spoke Louis unwrapped his arms from around his shivering form. Entirely drenched they clearly gave him no warmth. His lips had a tiny bluish tinge. After offering his name, maybe because of Harry's stunned silence, he extended his hand shyly. It was literally quaking when Harry took it so Harry did what a stirring in his body compelled him to do.

Instead of a hand shake and a release, Harry pulled this wet kitten with the silken purr into him. Though Harry was wet from wicking up the rain with his legs, wet from rain driven by the wind making it down his neck, wet from the splashing of water from stepping into hidden puddles, so much icy rain making it into Harry's clothing yet Harry still felt this flush of warmth come over him the instant Louis' body yielded into to his. 

Harry had been able to see the discrete details of Louis' form when they entered the lite entryway. He had noted that Louis was small yet curvy. Thin yet powerful. The wet white tee shirt had a loose neck which the rain had stretched even more. Louis' collarbones were prominent and so much more alluring in the light. Harry looked down at this creature he'd collected into him; he was too deeply overwhelmed with the stunning, delicate, flawless, that faced him.

Harry couldn't help but to respond with his lips moving almost dangerously too close to those which had just spoken to him.

"Louis, Louis Tomlinson...have we met before?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry remembers.

The question made Louis divert his crystal blue eyes away from Harry's piercing, soul-searching green ones. Louis blushed. The blush of pink hinted of some honey warmth that could be coaxed from Louis. Harry tried to suppress a flash of want that ripped through his mind; the blush gave him an idea of seeing this beauty's entire body redden by the heat of orgasmic pleasure.

The blue eyes returned to meet his after a fluttering of thick dark lashes preceded the reply. The reply seemed to be formed with metered caution. 

Harry was accustomed to this. Bashful, shy, nervousness. Fans. Louis was a fan. Harry knew Louis' voice was trapped by the choking sensation Harry could affect so easily upon people with his celebrity status. He anticipated the answer; Louis had met him at some signing, in some crowd, part of a chasing mob on the streets. How this beauty escaped his notice even in a crowd was beyond Harry's comprehension. So he tighten his hold on this kitten.

"We met before...before you were put with a band. At XFactor. M'sure you don't remember but I auditioned too and I met you at the audition in the loo. You don't remember but I got your autograph...I wore glasses then..."

Right. Instantaneously, Harry remembered.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impulsive kiss.

Now it was Harry himself who was speechless. He sputtered. His mouth formed words and his own throat choked them back. Yes. Harry remembered.

At the Xfactor audition Harry was a bundle of nerves and self-doubt. Kind words from his family were appreciated but he was certain he wasn't going to make it through. Then in the toilets a lad who had auditioned just a little before him asked for his autograph. He would always remember that moment. It was the first such request. And the boy was really, really cute.

"I do remember that!" Harry finally gasped. His hands went to Louis' face and long fingers cradled Louis' delicate features. Harry looked deeper with the familiarity explained. 

As Harry searched Louis features the details of their brief encounter were peeled back and subtle details kindled. Before Harry could think, tell himself to get control of the emotions that were stirred, he gave into his first impulse.

He kissed this Louis-from-the-Xfactor-loo with urgent, fevered passion. His tongue found Louis mouth welcoming and responding in kind as Louis mewed his pleasure into their kiss. 

It was timeless, the kiss. When the force of it took his breath to desperation Harry pulled back and again looked deep into Louis' face.

"You wore glasses then, yes. I remember because when you went out before the judges I saw you and you weren't wearing them. When you asked me for my autograph I remembered I wanted to ask you why you took off the glasses because I thought they made you so sexy. But I was nervous. No one had ever asked me for an autograph...or made me feel the way you did. I heard you, you were great...."


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis is embarrased. Harry is certain he knows why.

Harry caught himself. He felt this small, trembling lad stiffen and knew instantly the reason. Harry had been put through. How insensitive could he be?

He looked as this Louis who was blushing. Harry guessed the reason for the embarrassed flush. He realized that although he did recall Louis' audition maybe his memory was shaded by his own infatuation. Harry remembered he had felt himself respond to this Louis long ago when they met briefly. He was a kid, sixteen, all hormones. Back then and just like at this moment, Harry's cock had hardened, something about this Louis was right for Harry. His body had told him so. Physical infatuation years ago may have made Harry's perception off. How well Louis actually did that day before the judges...well maybe Harry's recollection was wrong because his infatuation deceived him at the moment. 

Harry noticed that the trembles and the quakes weren't subsiding as he held Louis even though it was warm inside and dry. Harry still had Louis pulled close. Wouldn't that make them stop? Harry felt embarrassed for not being more thoughtful. He began to consider that what Louis was likely to be remembering most about that day. It probably wasn't about Harry. For Louis. Louis most likely replayed a thousand times in his head the words from the judges. It would be the same as what Harry heard before he got lucky enough to be one they selected when they decided to construct a group of four boys. 

Clearly the judges had told Louis, "I'm sorry, but it's going to be a no from me" and that was it for Louis. He was out. Harry, Liam, Zayn and Niall were lucky. 

Catching himself before further potential offense and embarrassment Harry pulled back and said, "You're soaked through. Let's get you out of those drenched clothes."

He pulled Louis by the hand and despite this being his home, his mansion, his staff, his soirée, Harry proceeded to sneak through the estate as if a child making a clandestine foray into some naughty prank. Peering cautiously at every turn he made his way up stairs with them going unseen and into his master suite.

Once through the door Harry felt like a teen anew because his typically neat life style had been abandoned and he was confronted with a room wrecked with the dozens of costume changes that Harry had spun through in his attempt to find the perfect look for his evening.

As he released Louis' hand when they passed through the door and looked at the wreckage in his room he'd forgotten momentarily that he had just drug a wet, outrageously gorgeous boy into his room with him.

Harry turned to see Louis standing there with his back plastered to the door behind him looking at the scene before him a little intimidated. Intimidated? No, but maybe...awestruck? Yes, definitely awestruck.

It was the mess.

Yes, the mess, Harry guessed. 

Harry began gathering robes, and masks and trinkets, ruffled shirts, spandex...spandex? Whatever, and profusely he was apologizing, mortified at his unlivable room. 

Then he heard it. A sound that made his heart melt and his actions freeze. Louis was laughing at him. Laughing. So clear was the laugh at the ridiculousness of Harry's dash to tidy up that Harry found himself dropping the pile of stuff he had wadded into a bundle in his arms creating mess anew. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry begins to question.

Moved.....


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conflict.

As soon as Harry's mind drifted to a question he could see Louis followed his thoughts. Louis dropped his smile. The crinkles around his eyes faded. His arms returned to folding guardedly across his torso as if they would give him some protection.

"What we're you doing out there? I mean, umm, what...why? How was it that you were driving him here? You're what? His driver?"

Guarded tension, shifting posture, these changes were visual foreshadowing as much as the loss of laughter. Louis never broke his eye contact with Harry. He answered Harry with a quiet honesty..

"Ben is my boyfriend. He had this plan to have me drive him close because he knew his car couldn't get in the proper entrance, pass your security at the front gate. So I drove him."

Harry heart fell. How could this creature, so beautiful, so seductively designed, be in a relationship with the most notorious member of the paparazzi, Ben Winston? 

How? Harry thought again. How was it that, Ben, the worst sort of troll, had a boyfriend? One that looks like this? Ben had to be at least twenty years Louis' senior, or more. How could this be?

Harry felt something from his stomache come up and burn in the back of his throat. And although he had too recently been the victim of inexcusable, shameful, abuse with the stalking, he wanted to see through the likely answer. Maybe Louis was a fame-seeking cad. Harry couldn't bear to know because as they stood there, Harry's heart beating with rapid anticipation, Harry could only feel this physical attraction to Louis.

Louis wasn't looking away either. It seemed he meant to say more but he no sooner started to speK than he stopped himself to wait for a response. It freaked Harry more than just a bit because Louis seemed calm and direct about his answer. Harry searched Louis' eyes. He saw no shame. Louis wasn't wincing, or diverting, or running from his words. He wasn't apologizing.

Then Harry panicked. He felt his blood run cold. He stepped back a few steps and examined Louis. The rain-soaked clothes still clung to his form. A form built for sin. His nips stood out behind his thin white tee. His luscious thighs kept drawling Harry's attention. Harry's brain fell into their trap. The idea flashed through his thoughts, despite the admission of a few seconds prior, that they were meant for squeezing and marking. Every feature on his defined body was exquisite. 

Louis tilted his head , a perplexed gesture signing he awaited a response. Harry couldn't give one.

Harry decide to play it cool. What was this Louis playing at? Harry wanted him so badly. Unnaturally so. From the moment the lightening struck in the skies over them. Even as Louis spoke about a plan of deceit, something in Harry's core screamed, "Step forward. Hold him. Kiss him again." 

Harry shook off the feelings of desire. Just as quick as he made that resolution Harry felt the longing and emptiness he'd been living with consume him. This is the emotion that haunted him through most days. Then he began falling into more negativity. This party was the stupidist idea for finding a soulmate, he thought. As if it would happen. As if something like this trickery-skilled minx wasn't the best he could hope for. 

Harry's own foolishishness was handed to himself at his own hand in every decision. Have a party, leave the party to investigate some strange lights. Find a kitten in a creek. Bring him home. Didn't his mum say don't bring home stray cats? 

Louis was still quietly looking at Harry. Almost expectantly.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelation and Harry withdrawals.

The seconds ticked off. This was Ben Winston's boyfriend? Unbearable and unbelievable. Harry had the feeling like every cell in his body was splitting. 

Harry realized his conflict; he was simutaneously drawn to Louis and revolted. He realized this internal dilemma was outwardly obvious when he saw Louis look away. Louis had read the unspoken words of Harry's expression, the meaning of Harry's posture. Words weren't necessary. Afterall, they were just strangers reallly. Two chance meetings. Something random. Not like they were meant to be.

"M' going to call for a ride from here..." Louis began to say as he continued to avoid looking at Harry now. 

Harry blurted, "No!"

Their eyes met again for a split second then both pulled away.

Harry couldn't believe the impulse erupted from him. What was this stupid thing inside him that made the attraction to Louis so strong. Didn't his brain understand, this was Ben's, Ben's...whatever. 

Embarassed, Harry struggled with what to say. Then it occurred to him they had met on this night in a storm. Louis was not shaking so violently now like he was when Harry discovered him but the entire purpose of bringing Louis back was to spare him risk of serious hypothermia. So there was the solution. Delay. Avoiding Hurt was Harry's fall-back behavior, a self defense strategy Harry knew well. 

"Um, I...you..." Harry began. 

Harry lost his thought because, blast it, He saw from his unfocused peek in Louis' direction that Louis had cocked his head listening intently to Harry like some adorable puppy bent on interpreting this foreign language spoken to him. Harry had to look away immediatly to avoid it's compelling trap. He made himself busy and began once more to pick up things from the assortment of costume attire strewn throughout his room. He selected a few items needing to change into something dry with the intention now to stepping away from this delicious but dangerous waif and return to his party. 

Give himself time. 

Avoid this temptation. 

As he sorted through looking for suitable options to change into he spoke while trying to refrain from looking again at Louis. Louis whose skin had become luminescent, amber in the warmth. 

"You need to get out of those wet clothes. Use the bathroom over there," Harry's said without looking at Louis and a vague wave in the direction of the master bath attached to his expansive suite. "Maybe you should have a hot shower to warm up. I'm going to change in one of the other rooms. I'll throw your muddy clothes in the wash and when they're done drying I'll return them to you. I'm sure by then someone will be leaving the party. You can catch a ride home or something."

Harry chanced a quick look at Louis but retreated from it immediately seeing that Louis was looking back at him a little less unfettered. He was searching Harry, like he wanted to speak but holding something back all the same. It wouldn't matter what he said, Harry thought, not after the admission about Ben Winston, boyfriend Ben Winston. 

Harry quickly looked more deliberatly and forceably away. "You can put something on from these things," he said gesturing to the heap of assorted clothes for the masqurade, "if you like, and join us downstairs at the party...or just chill up here if you rather, whatever..." 

Another chanced, darting look at Louis and Harry was quick to turn from it again. Louis looked fragile, on the verge of tears. Or, or, or what? Harry wasn't sure. One thing for certain. It was a powerfully compelling force that went straight to Harry's heart. Like they were meant to be. Why did he want ...need to go to Louis and embrace him? What about this...this Louis, who was The-Troll's-Boyfriend-and Co-Conspirator to crashing the party did Harry's heart not understand? 

Needing a margin of self-respect and self-preservation, Harry settled on a few things he needed to reconstruct a suitable replacement costume and withdrew from the room. He repeated the instructions to leave the wet, muddy clothes for Harry take to the wash. While Harry spoke as he made every effort to refrain from risking a split second glance at Louis again. Even though his brain said "How is he going to get those tight wet clothes off?... He might need help. ...You should help him!" Right. Harry silently slapped himself for the stupidity. He repeated to himself: Ben Winston's boyfriend, Ben Winston's Boyfriend, danger, do not approach. 

As he closed the door behind himself Harry heard Louis say "Thank you Harry. M'sorry."


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like a ship cut adrift, Harry aimlessly passes time as an observer at his party.

It was a couple hours later when Harry tried another drink to see if the things in his head about Louis would stop perplexing him.

His party, when he returned to it from his rainy, adventure into emotion hell, was in full swing. The presence of the other members of 1D and 500 guests made it so few seemed to notice his abscence. But from the moment he left this Louis person in his room he seemed to think of nothing else. 

Maybe it was wearing a mask that made everything seem surreal and disjointed form any reality, but Harry drifted through the party feeling like he was floating out of body, an observer. 

Perhaps it was because his mask didn't cover his mouth while the rest of his face was hidden, but for some reason Harry kept touching his fingers to his lips. It was as if his lips were yearning for something ...some touch. Louis' touch. Their lips felt so perfect pressed toghether.

So Harry downed the drink that he did not need. He walked disconnected from his party passing through the crowd realizing he should switch the small bit of clothing he promised to return to its wearer from the washing machine to the dryer. His thought was the sooner he got the clothes back upstairs, the sooner he could begin the process of finding someone, anyone to drive Louis away, home, back to Ben. Maybe removing Louis from his home would make the nawling pull of the memory of their kiss fade.

Harry slipped unnoticed through the crowd. The guests were universally at a new level of annoying as most were pretty drunk. If he had little interest in them at the start of the party, it was fair to say he had no interest now. 

Reaching the kitchen which was enroute to the laundry Harry saw Zayn standing there with a small group around him. Perrie was hanging off Zayn lazily. A few other familiar faces, people that the shyest member of 1D liked to chill with, were in this group. Even behind their masks most were familiar to Harry because Zayn was usually such a loner. If he was with someone at a big event like this it was typically someone he knew and trusted. Harry got a few strides away from the person whose back was to him and directly facing Zayn when Harry stopped. The bum on this individual Harry was approaching from behind was truly spectacular. 

Harry stood there having gone a little slack-jawed with astonishment. Zayn was talking to this person, this girl, Harry imagined because she had shiny, straight, jet black hair cropped just below the chin and inch or two. Her arse kept drawling the hand of a party goer standing beside her to it. She swatted it off and seemed to be trying to stay engaged with Zayn who was appearing to be uncharacteristally animated and jovial with this girl. For whatever the reason, Perrie, who could be jealous from time to time, was as engaged in laughing as much with this mystery girl as was Zayn. 

Harry considered approaching. The bum was truly luscious, revealed nicely in a pair of black tights. The costume was simple at best particularly compared to the one worn by the very tall man next to the girl who again and again tried to slide a hand to the gorgeous arse in tights.

Something about seeing Zayn looking so happy and enjoying himself made Harry decide to leave the little party within his larger party to themselves. It was a special quality to get Zayn to open up and be involved like that. The appealing bum may have compelled Harry to want to meet Zayn's friend, but his irritability over Louis made Harry turn away. Again Harry found he had touched his lips with his fingers thinking of Louis' lips on his. That was all it took to send him off to get the clothes of Louis' into the dryer so he could get the uninvited and very mistaken guest out of his house and maybe out of his head.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry discovers his unintentional guest is missing.

Taking the clothes upstairs Harry's heart begins to race. Despite the emotions which made sense for this dilemma, Harry actually felt desire to see Louis. How the fuck can Louis be with Ben Winston? Why would anyone like that troll much less date him?

Harry held his breath as he approached his own bedroom door. He almost knocked because of how nervous he felt. The stupidity of his timid, anxious confusion made him silently kick himself again. What kind of idiot was he? And why was he touching his lips again to rekindle the feeling of Louis' lips on his...for the thousandth time! 

Harry through the door open. His room was empty. Louis must have decided to put something on from Harry's pile of costumes and join the party. 

Great, Harry thought. Now he had the Troll's Minon sculking about. 

He turned to leave setting the clothes down and then he saw the note. Signed by Louis with a pair of eyes and a smile included with the signature it simply said, "thanks, feel so much warmer! Hungry, going downstairs like you offered"

Harry tried not think that the signature with a smiley by Louis' name was adorably cute. It was though. 

Harry caught himself in a smile of his own because of the note, but then wondered wtf was he thinking? The Troll's spy was on the loose in his party. Conflicting emotions swung in Harry like a pendulum between positive to negative. What had been nervous butterflies in his stomach, desire to see the gorgeous boy who's kiss lingered on his lips as perfection, returned to the fear of being played by some agent of deceit. 

Harry left his room to seek out Louis. He would find him, give Louis his clothes. Louis could dress an leave. Harry would find someone to take him back to Ben or wherever. 

***


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry's searches his party for his stray.

The first place Harry went to search was the kitchen because the note said "hungry". Harry didn't see Louis. Zayn was still in the kitchen but he and Perrie were alone together. They looked very "coupley" so he searched elsewhere without disturbing them. 

Once he walked past the tall fellow who was still with the girl who had been talking to the group with Zayn. Harry couldn't miss the tall guy or the girl because the man was seriously groping arse. The girl seemed in a struggle to avert more of the same, pushing away the tall guy and Harry almost went to be a hero when he was abruptly stopped. Unexpectedly, he was wrapped up by the arms of a very drunk Grimshaw. 

Drug away by Nick who had someone he "had to introduce Harry to", the impulse to rescue faded temporarily. 

It was sometime later before Harry returned to his search for Louis. Nick's introduction was more a joke than an opportunity. Nick could be such a twat. The irritability Nick caused in Harry only lead to Harry thinking more about Louis. 

Actually everything and nothing made Harry think of Louis.

Harry searched. He went pass the tall guy with the affinity for nice arse once again and saw this time that the man was holding some ice on his cheekbone. Harry could imagine; the girl may have resorted to cold-cocking him for being too hansy. 

There was no sign of Louis anywhere. After much searching Harry went back into the kitchen. This time he went straight to Zayn as Zayn was waving him over to where he was engaged in conversation with a new group that included Perrie, Niall and a few strangers. 

He listened politely to the conversation. Once the one person speaking stopped, Zayn shared the reason for his waving Harry over. 

"Harry, when we're you going to tell us about your little adventure earlier tonight?"

Everyone turned and looked at Harry waiting for a response. Harry realized they must have all somehow learned about his ridiculous stormy night hike. 

"You mean my stupid wandering in the bloody rain? Dragging back trouble?" 

"Mate, Louis seems like he could be lots of things, trouble maybe, but what are the odds of him crossing paths with us like that again? Why didn't you tell us what he did?" Niall said. 

Harry felt exposed and stupid. Did he need to tell them how Louis snuck in? Did Louis tell them that there was a kiss? Was it just how he tricked Harry to get into the party? Wasn't Harry already repeatedly revealed in a negative way enough by Louis' troll boyfriend?

"Well maybe I'll save that for a time when I'm not feeling like such an idiot...again. How 'bout this. Either of you know where he is? I'd like him to change and leave actually. Suggestions about his whereabouts?"

Their smiling faces went to stoic and shocked. Harry guessed from their change in expressions that they had no idea how badly the trickery hurt him. Niall and Zayn exchanged a perplexed shrug, then Zayn spoke.

"Last time I saw him this tall dude, some so-called French photgrapher who couldn't keep his hands off Louis, was pulling Louis out to the dance floor in your party hall. Maybe you should look there. Louis has got a wig on, a black hair, shorter than Perrie's hair, very straight. His mask is like a cat-eye shaped thing with a few feathers. Find the photographer and he's probably still all over Louis. Those black tights he borrowed from you are too enticing for a bum like Louis' or so everyone is saying. Right Niall?" 

Niall laughed and started to say something, but Harry spun around and left. He knew exactly who he was looking for now. The spectacular arse in the black tights.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The "French Photgrapher" over-shares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And sorry but in case it is not obvious, I'm over doing the French accent because the character is being fake himself. It's a way to know his intenti is to mess with Harry. 
> 
> He's/ ee's not really French!

Harry found the tall photographer easily. The man was standing alone still nursing a redden cheek with an ice pack and looking miserable. Hoping for attention and pity perhaps. 

Harry rushed to him and immediately launched into quick introduction and inquiry about where did the person wearing the black wig go? The words came out so fast it that it was clear that the man had to think for a minute to understand Harry's English.

The photographer perked up and stood straighter which made him taller than Harry. Removing ice pack from his face he answered with a question, "Louis? You are wanting Louis?" He didn't need Harry's description. It seemed from his eager manner of reply that he was keenly aware of Louis. 

"Yes, that's who I'm wanting..." Harry caught himself, "I mean I don't want him, want him. I'm looking for him, thats all. I really don't want him though..." 

Harry knew his words were coming out like he was some sort of moron. And he did feel stupid. Most horrifying of all was his realization that he did, indeed, really, really want Louis. Standing before this other man who just a short time ago had his hands all over Louis' body the reality dawned on Harry that it was like a sickness, an infection, but yes, to be honest, he wanted Louis.

The Frenchman raised a arm and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. Clearly he was a touchy-freely person. And maybe a bit too much into men, Harry sensed. With his accent thick he said, "It's okay my little flower, I know this thing Louis does to us. So pretty and sassy and all those, como-say-dee-say, curves? Has such booty, no?"

Harry looked down not wanting his eye contact to betray him. That's when the Frenchman said the thing that really made Harry's conflict choke him.

"I'm not sure I've ever seen Louis out without his big Ben. Myself, I think this is a chance to move my move, no? Ben keeps him on a short leash, don't you say that express-she-on. The leash is short, yes? Or tight?"

Was that intentional? The leash thing? Harry felt that this man's English was in fact probably perfect. Harry was also certain that there was no loss of comprehension about the double entendre to his word choices and a reference of an image of Louis in a collar, on a leash. Harry had seen this guy with his hands on Louis. Harry wasn't stupid. It was annoying to Harry the way the man went very thick with his accent as if by choice to appear accidentally clever. 

"Just where did he go?" Harry asked exasperated. 

"I'm sorry little flower. I don't know where Louis is. See ee struck me and when I was able to finally see ee had already van-eeshed. Poof. Like the little fairy ee is." A snap of fingers accentuated to word "poof" and the Frenchman seemed amused with himself. 

Harry considered just going on about his search but this person clearly knew Louis, and Ben, and that they were together. He said as much. It seemed worth while to inquire a bit more. It was a first insight into anything concrete about Louis. 

"You know Louis and Ben?" Harry asked. "You said they're together, a couple. How do you know them? Do you know how long they've been dating?" 

Saying the word "dating" was hard. Harry found his throat dry with it. Moreover Harry hated what his inquiry revealed about himself. 

"See Air-ree, I'm a photographer, so this is how I know Ben. But myself, I'm a good photographer. I work for legitimate clients, not the swine that Ben is paid by. So, yes, we know each other. Ee brings Louis to things, industry parties . Ben, ee shows Louis off. Ben is not stupid. Ee knows what ee is doing bring his twink. I think ee and Louis, they have been together for some years. Not sure why. I think Louis was going to be some model or something, but Ben, Ben controls the things with Louis." 

Harry was interpreting the things said and couldn't quite be certain about what rationale Louis would have for being with Ben. The implication was heavy from the Frenchman in his last few words. Ben controls the things. Harry shifted with contemplation. As if he'd asked, the photgrapher spoke again reiterating his innuendo. 

"Ben Winston has some power over Louis. Ee uses his pretty boy to open doors, then ee pulls him back. I don't think his boy much likes this, but they are a couple with some other story. I see Louis tonight, no Ben, I can't decide what to do. Do I ask him where his keeper is or do I go for his arse? I decide I try to get into him. You see, I'm human. I have needs. But Louis, ee hits me, poof, vanishes." 


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry is quick to lash out mistakenly at Niall.

Harry turns from the photographer and pushes through the crowd which seems louder and more drunk. In his search he hears Niall calling his name and they step aside from the loud crowd and noise. Niall appears eager to speak with Harry.

Harry is frustrated. He wants to know more about what details Louis was regaling people with his story about Harry sloshing through the storm earlier. Somehow Zayn and Niall both remembered Louis from when they were all at XFactor. It occurred to Harry that perhaps they had a far better reason than Harry's. Maybe Louis stood out to them because of some connection he made, this effect he had, or to Harry at least, Louis had such power. Had Louis played the same entrapment line on them in the men's room? Did he use the autograph request line on others as some great pickup? 

Harry was distracted at first with this question. Niall spoke and Harry was deep in thoughts about the X Factor. What part of his mind was not reflecting back was anxiously searching the crowd at his party in the here and now. 

"Did you find Louis Harry?"

"No, no I'm still looking?" Harry's tone was curse and frustrated. Niall's had been sincere and pleasant.

"I'm pretty sure I saw him come back down after changing clothes upstairs. You took his dry stuff up that he was waiting for, didn't you?"

Harry was frustrated even more. He tried not to lash out but Niall who was entirely too easy going about this for his liking. Didn't Niall understand?

"Niall, I did take his stuff up. He wasn't there. I wanted him to get dressed and out of here, but you seem to think he's like so wonderful or something, you and Zayn. Neither one of you seem to understand. We met at the XFactor, so what? He came here to sneak in, Niall, because he is helping that wanker Ben Winston. Did he leave that out of his story he told you and Zayn and the others?"

Niall had the devastated look of a kicked puppy that Harry hated. In fact, it occurred to Harry that this was the first and only time he'd ever brought this look out of Niall. Quite simply, they, Liam, Zayn and himself, had some sort of unspoken pack that they would never do this sort of thing...scold Niall. 

"M' sorry Harry. I just don't quite follow."

Harry exhaled his frustration and raised his voice more, another thing he had never done with Niall before. "What's not to follow Niall? The point of this party was a fun thing. Setting up for me to get back to work. But no, that pap Winston sneaks in the back of my property using his Trojan Horse boyfriend as a decoy or conspirator, or whatever. And to make things really bad, my best mates are welcoming him here! He's sleeping with the enemy for fucks sake!"

Harry caught his breath then continued with haste, "I probably wasn't out of his sight for a minute before he snuck down here anxieous to get something for Ben to use to shame me!"


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall reveals that Louis confided to him that Ben Winston was planning to profit on Harry's misery more revoltingly than anyone could imagin. (Bit of a cliffhanger.)

It was not Niall's way to deal with tension and conflict. Usually Niall would laugh, make some thickly Irish reference and be as passive as imaginable. Not this time. 

"Harry, what is wrong with you? What are you talking about? Yeah, Zayn and me remember Louis from the XFactor, sure, and because of that it was great to see him here. I remember that he was funny and sweet at a time when all of us were pretty stressed. I was worried that my voice didn't compare, especially when I heard Liam was turned away the year before. Zayn was freaking out because he said he didn't know there would be dance auditions too. No clue what has you so angry about tonight though. After all, wasn't it you who brought Louis here tonight?" 

"Yes, I did. But Niall I didn't even recognize him at first. And, and he only admitted he was with Ben, in a relationship with that wanker, after I already brought him into my home."

"So that's it? You didn't recognize him? You didn't remember him from the XFactor? Crazy, energetic, funny Louis? He talked to just about everyone I think. He was amazingly kind with his remarks. I even recall him talking about his four younger sisters and what they get nervous about, What tricks he said helped them not be so nervous. He was so good at making everyone laugh. You don't remember any thing like that?"

Harry said a simple, "No", which made Niall make a "hump"-kinda noise and he scratched his head with a sign of perplextion about how to reason further with Harry. 

"What do you mean?" Harry was thinking how quickly he tried to pull away from Louis once Louis said "boyfriend". Harry knew Louis almost went on to say more, but restrained himself when he saw the way Harry reacted. A nervous panicky feeling started to haunt Harry's conscious about what happened upstairs, not so much about what Louis said, but the things he almost said.

Niall studied Harry for a few seconds. How was it that Harry was so clueless sometimes? But that was just Harry. Niall could see a massive confusion forming by the expression on Harry's face. So Niall explained. 

"I went upstairs because Liam is making me nuts over this song we've been working on. I know Liam likes to write songs with someone, but I'm just not good at that... with him. Neither is Zayn, but Liam needs like a buddy because he gets so, so, so Liam. All night he's been pestering me about this tune. I decided I'd go upstairs away from everyone and take my guitar to see if I could work something out then get back with him on it. I surely did not want to be at your piano, tonight, in a crowd, with Liam, the pressure, the whole thing." 

Harry understood what Niall meant. Sometimes Liam just needed to get ideas down and he worked too hard. It took the fun out of writing music. But if Liam had an idea, something he liked, he just couldn't be free-spirited and give the process time to let inspiration come naturally for his co-writers. The four of them desperately wanted to write more of their own music, create a 1D sound. Liam just liked working with a pace different pace than the other three of them. 

Niall continued on, "So I'm upstairs in the hall siting at the window at the far end of the hall where I'm sure no one will find me, I'm plunking around with my guitar. I begin to get this glimpse of the door to your bedroom opening a tiny bit, but when I look down the hall it's closed so I think I'm halicinating from standing too close to Zayn's smoke." 

"I keep messing with this tune and out of the corner of my eye I eventually catch that the door is opening a little bit. It is closed whenever I look that way. Like I'm being watched. Not imagining, so I go to your room and knock. Louis opens the door. I was surpirsed. He was standing there, a towel round him and he started this nervous explanation: you found him outside in the storm, he was driving Ben Winston who was going to search for some camera of his that you and Zayn took, he got worried about Ben getting the camera and then selling some vomit of yours on EBay from some day he caught you vomiting roadside. Anyway, the story was confusing but I'm sure you know what camera and what vomit he's talking about. I didn't. But the thing is this...." 

Niall looked at Harry. He realized as he spoke that Louis appeared from a common past they shared, but out of the blue, with Harry nemesis, clothes-less and, and...it was curious, "You brought Louis back here Harry. So why are you so mad?" 

Harry shouted his reply. Didn't Niall get it. There it was, Louis confessed he was worried about the plan Ben had, a plan to get his camera and...and what? Did Niall say Ben took the vomit? And wanted to sell it...like on EBay?


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The confusion between Harry and Niall is interrupted by a song.

Harry's face made a twisted contorted look of discomfort.

"What did you say! Winston has some vomit from my, my roadside wretching...and he was going to sell it? WHAT? Who does that?"

Niall's words of reply seemed to ball up within his mouth. Harry's lips were trembling and tears were filling his eyes to the brim. Niall tried to consider where to go with his response because he only just realized that Harry didn't have the full story from Louis, clearly. His face showed his devastation. So if Harry didn't know about Winston's plan, he also did not know how Louis diverted it by deliberatly putting Ben's car in the ditch aborting all hope of sneaking into Harry's mansion. 

Harry and Niall were both trying to conjur their words to each other when they both became aware of a change in the music coming from the other room. What had been a loud, recorded music playlist spun by a dj was turned off. A tune had started being played on piano. Niall recognized it first. As they were arrested in their aurguement, the familiar song had an ironic timing. They listened. 

At first to Niall it was as if a soundtrack of the story he just had shared with Harry began to play in his head. Maybe that's why he didn't notice at first, that the music was live, not imagined, not heard only by him. But when Harry became distracted by the music too that was when Niall realized that he wasn't alone in hearing the song. No. They both heard it. 

The tune was neeed the very song Niall had gone upstairs to work on. The one he and Liam were struggling with. 

Upstairs after Niall discovered Louis, learned about why Louis was in Harry's room, they talked more about many things; things eventually lead to the problematic song. It wasn't long before they got lost together in its riddle. They eventually got some transitions worked out for the tune. All the while this party of Harry's carried on in the house beneath them, as they were oblivious, very much having a good time working on music together. They had clicked as a team and when they parted, Louis had done as much to create this piece as either Niall or Liam. 

How it came to be that Liam and Louis were together pouring over the music was yet for Harry and Niall to discover. They both were captivated by the song, which started first as a few bars on the piano, played a few seconds than stopped. Began again, than stopped. Eventually the playing started again and continued more consistently. 

With each extension of the duration of play it became increasingly clear that there were two people were at the keyboard. They had begun as alternating turns but it morphed into them both playing together. Niall and Harry could tell fingers sometimes stumbled into each other. As this evolved, eventually Liam was also occassionally singing. It was definately the song, the one Niall was telling Harry about, the one he and Louis perfected. Clearly over in the main room far from where Harry and Niall were talking Louis must engaged somehow in sharing with Liam the transitions he and Niall worked out. Liam was clearly following, applying the details. It sounded so good.

After a fumbled series of play attempts, the song began to be played once more from the start. Two sets of hands on the keyboards played with some false starts and stops. Then the tune came together and Liam started to sing. The thing that struck both Harry and Niall was after several of these "false starts", and after Liam settled into singing, a second voice joined his. 

It was a body infusing shock to Harry when he heard a voice familiar but not. It was like something from a dream for Harry. Niall recognized and identified the voice quickly. Afterall he'd been upstairs just a few hours before and had played the song on his guitar, with Louis, they had dabbled at some lyrics. Quite simply Louis made Niall come to some place where he felt he'd achieved some transitions the song needed. Niall knew without question that the two at the piano were Liam and Louis.

For Harry a foggy suspicion lifted slowly at first. The recognition of who the second voice was came to him like one of those dream-memories of a buried past, a déjà-vous kind of thing. He was hearing Louis voice, hidden a bit in harmony with Liam's, but hearing it all the same. It was the first time in years, since the Xfactor auditions before they were a group. It was Louis. Harry knew it with greater certainty. As soon as he recognized that reality Harry felt it; the pull, the warmth, the tingling like when he encountered Louis hours before in the electric storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the fatefulness feeling is coming across...idiot at edits today.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry catches up with Louis at his party. It's a Lilo thing.

They entered the main room of Harry's mansion. It was courtyard like space, very open and expansive. From where Niall and Harry rejoined this party they were challenged to wade through a mass of drunken party-goers. Harry and Niall tripped over each other as they pushed through the crowd. 

Reaching the far corner where the piano was placed the anticipation drew Harry's breath. 

Everyone knew Liam and he was as much an interest to the guests as their host Harry. If fact to many he was more an intrigue. At least the rumors about him were not chasing off the ladies. But there with him was in fact Louis. Dry, dressed in his own clothing, looking warm like sun itself.

Two of them were playing, playing off of each other actually, having a laugh and nearly unaware of the mob around them. They were literally composing a song together right before the public's eyes. The spectating crowd murmured a consistent question to those around them, "Was this some new songwriter for the band?"

By the time Harry and Niall arrived into view of the duo the song was more or less fully developed. A nearly uninterrupted playing of it was given a heathy applause. In response to the crowd appreciation Liam pulled Louis into him and gave him an affectionate hug as he ruffled Louis already toused hair. Louis pushed Liam away playfully slapping him. The feeling upon seeing them was that it was like Niall had said of his interaction with Louis; they just clicked. Liam and Louis seemed like long lost mates. Much like Harry realized in retrospect, was true of what he witnessed with Louis and Zayn in the kitchen; Louis just fit with them. All of them.

The crowd was cheering and calling encore, urging a replay. Liam's delight shown in his expression, he began again and nudged Louis to follow with him.

There it was, Harry felt his breath arrest and his heart leap in his chest. Louis' voice, so different and complimentary to Liam's, the voice he loved from the first time her heard it years ago at the Xfactor.

Everyone in the large open room had fallen quiet and listened as the song was being performed again. With no distractions from the sound of the two voices and the piano Harry was free to focus on Louis in his entirety.

The, shivering mess which had been drug in from the storm by Harry was vanquished. As if warmed by the sun itself, Louis' skin looked flawless and amber. Enhanced by his natural coloring his eyes flickered with the shades in sapphires and aquamarine. His collarbones which had held Harry's attention so long earlier in the evening were again exposed, beckoning Harry's mind. The freshly cleaned, dry, white tee seemed to have suffered some permanent over stretching from the adventures because it kept slidding out of place making it a distraction. Louis would occasionally take his hands from the piano keys to tug the shirt back into place This made Harry notice that refined collarbones weren't exclusive to Louis' form; his hands were similarly delicate-looking as well.

The biting reality of "oh fuck me, I'm slayed" hit Harry most when he realized his fingers were on his lips as had been their habit all night because he was wanting to use them to trace from those collarbones up Louis' neck leaving marks in his wake. 

He wanted to nibble on Louis earlobe and breathe in the scent of him with his nose buried in the fluffy, silky-looking fringe that framed Louis' whimsical features.

Those lips, so much more boyish than Harry's own plump, berry-colored ones had felt like perfection against Harry's. Harry was staring at them with such singularly intense focus that he was only shocked from his fantasy when he saw Louis' mouth lose is course in the song and teeth took hold of lower lip in an expression of concern. Louis had caught sight of Harry and literally bit back his surprise at being stared at by Harry. 

Liam finding his duet aborted stopped too and followed Louis' focus to the cause of the distraction. Then everyone seemed to follow the shift of attention. Harry Styles was fixated with Liam's performance partner.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis disappears.

Louis was the first to react. He lept up which nearly sent himself tumbling backwards over the piano bench but Liam caught him saving him the clumsy fall. What had been playfulness between Liam and Louis moments before was replaced by a self protective defensiveness such that Louis pulled away as if Liam's touch had been an offense in his haste to scramble away. 

Harry moved toward the two at the piano at the same time that Louis backed away. Confusion had set in among everyone in the tightly bunched crowd so when Harry made his sudden dash toward Louis calling his name, it was a split second too late as Louis had already turned and disappeared through a mass of spectators who had no idea they were an obstruction to a night long mystery set within the masquerade.

Harry grasped for Louis pushing through the near impenetrable sea of people, but he found Louis' path had vanished and so had he, back into the storm. 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next/last chapter of Missing Piece might be angsty and open-ended. Dark Pieces goes into depth on some of the evil-Ben Winston side of things and will be dark (right) and explicit. Trying to write it so a jump to the third section allows the story to be complete with skipping triggers. Sorry I'm not better organized.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...missing piece" Simon said.
> 
> It had simply been that every minute of everyday since his party Harry had a singular focus. 
> 
> To be fair, it really wasn't entirely all his own fault.
> 
> The four members of One Direction need to get to their roots after they spend a week following the masqurade party going over the details of what feels like a missing piece.

"Missing piece" Simon had said. 

They sat with Simon having listened to him talking about when they came together as a band. It was the first time he'd ever shared some details about their inception. 

As Simon ended the story his final two words were "missing piece". The words were ironic to Harry. That was because it described exactly what he felt. He was missing a piece. Like someone had taken a chunk out of his heart and left a gapping hole. It ached with a constant dull hurt and only changed into a more painful flare of sensation as if the tear ripping wider as time went on and more came out about Louis after the party ended. The missing piece of Harry's heart was Louis. 

Louis. Louis and the week long agony Harry endured after his party, Louis' unexpected appearance and then disappearance, is what had brought the four of them into see "uncle Simon". 

Following the masquerade party things got worse and worse for Harry. It started as soon as most the guests had left and Harry spoke with Niall, Zayn and Liam. For the first time Harry formed a clear picture from the pieces they put together of what was transpiring on that evening with Louis during the party. 

One by one Zayn, Niall and Liam revealed what their interaction with Louis was like. They shared with Harry the party side conversations and what individual memories they had from several years before when the five of them were all solo XFactor hopefuls. A picture of Louis unfolded. It deepen Harry's regret because he came to understand a few things which pained his heart and started a tear. 

Apparently it was truthful to say that Louis was boyfriend to Ben Winston. But on the night of the party his intent was nothing like the party crashing which Harry led Louis into. Louis confessed to Zayn and Niall how he drove his "wanker boyfriend" to the party only in an effort to try to divert his boyfriend's unscrupulous plans. It was deliberate monkey-wrenching of sneaking when Louis put Ben's car in the stream. 

"Wanker boyfriend" was Louis' own term for Ben. Niall and Zayn shared that information as they described a Louis who seemed uninfatuated, even loathsome about his boyfriend's character. In two different independent confessions about his actions Louis told Zayn and Niall the exact same thing. The exact same adjectives were used to discribed Ben. Louis revealed same details of Ben's plan and what preceded it; how Louis decided to ruin Ben's chances by wrecking the car into the stream. 

It was clear that Louis never guessed that Harry of all people would be wandering his estate so far removed from his home and guests. Who could predict that? Why would a rational individual go out into a storm? If that was a question Louis had asked, Harry knew immediately how he would answer it. He'd say the unpredictable happened because some compelling force drew him out. Those fireflies of light. And like moths to a flame or bees to honey, Harry had followed the force of nature within him. It took him to Louis. 

On that stormy night, apparently, something about a papping Harry vomiting roadside, vomit which Ben was so low as to retrieve, had put Louis over the edge. Ben took the slime to sell it, Louis disclosed to Zayn and Niall. Louis described to them how Ben was positively furious because Zayn had taken his camera. The party was an opportunity for Ben to try to get the camera back. Ben hoped to go undetected as he skulked about in a masquerade costume. Upon leaning about this intention Louis had decided to spoil this disgusting plan of Ben's. With out the pictures, who would know whose vomit the substance could be? 

Harry knew this scenario fit in perfectly to everything that had happened at the party and even starting the week before. In fact it fit together so perfectly that it could never be made up. The roadside puking, Zayn having taken the camera with the grotesquely large lens...it was all too supportive of the idea that Ben's goal was to retrieve a camera with the photographs of Harry by slipping into the party. 

So then the question remained. Why was Louis with Ben? Harry, Liam, Niall and Zayn all began to ask themselves and each other. It was impossible to fathom the logic of Ben Winston, troll, with Louis Tomlinson. Their glimpses of Louis' character suggested nothing that made them work together as a couple or anything really. 

The four of them tried to understand. In the three separate Louis-encounters Liam, Niall and Zayn never heard anything from Louis that would answer why he was with Ben, admittedly, only Harry actually had that confession from Louis. But then, none of the three of them tried to catch Louis in a lip-lock either. 

As Zayn, Liam and Niall tried to reconcile the preposterous notion, Louis with Ben, Harry found his lips being grased by his fingers and he realized, Louis only confided that to him. And that tidbit only came out after Harry made a flirtatious move to kiss Louis. If they had never kissed, maybe Harry would have never known. Afterall, Louis had no plan to sneak into the party and seduce Harry. All that happened from Harry's own choices and actions. Louis had been honorable and honest. 

As Harry speculated in silence about the kiss it was Liam who had the interesting thing to say about Louis which gave them a clue. It was information that peaked their curiosity enough to send them all together to go see Simon, for possible further clarification. 

"When I ran into Louis at your party the other night," Liam told Harry and the others, "I was a surprised as the likes of all of you to see him. I never reallly talked to him much when we had met at the Xfactor but I never forgot him. I was telling him that on the night of the party. I was being nice, I thought, but he seemed really, really fidgety, anxious, like he wanted to go. He was distracted. Like he was watching for someone." 

Harry knew that at this point Liam was correct to notice the behavior. Louis transformed into an unwelcomed guest when Harry's demeanor changed from flirtily desirous to loathing with the Ben Winston disclosure, disclosure that spawned an internal conflict within Harry. He wore those emotions on the surface. Harry rememberd so clearly, Louis almost said more. An explanation perhaps? But Harry's body language was shouting repulsion. 

"Go on" Harry said to Liam with his voice becoming choked, growing deeper in tone than normal, feeling each swallow in his throat deepening the tearing sensation in his heart. Liam's description of Louis was a clear picture of the hurt Harry must have caused when he reacted so repulsed by Louis a minute after he had been kissing him. Harry felt the pain for his stupidity in reacting without any knowledge of the bigger story. A swallow. A tear. "Go on Li." 

"So I tried to talk with him because he seemed nervous, jittery. And it led to him saying he'd that seen Niall and Zayn too and that's how we got on the subject of the song that he and Niall had been working on, my song, the one Niall was so frustrated with. And then we went to the piano..." 

There was a pause and Harry gestured with his hands for more. 

"...And we played around. Then you came in." 

"That's it?" 

"Yeah, that's it...except...except that I so much wanted to tell him the thing which seeing him at your house made me think of about the Xfactor audtions. It's ironic really that I never got to tell him. That made twice he was just running off too, too fast." 

Harry was prompted to interrupt and push for further explanation, feeling Liam had something pivotal to share. "There was something that happened at the audition. What was that about?" 

Indeed the news Liam broke to them, something he'd never mentioned, was something he'd completely forgotten from years before. It was only shaken into the forefront of his mind by the strange evening of the masquerade. It was a revelation that would leave them all a bit stunned. They would talk about it for days, talk about it with their management and ultimately go to Simon to get resolution. 

Liam looked at Harry and said, "Oh, well that was because my memory of Louis from the auditions was of his name being called. He was like one of us, the names they were calling to come back. I remember that. His name was called again and again. Just like ours. I also distinctly remember now that when they had found the four of us, grouped us together, the interns were talking about him. After searching they said none of them could find Louis. I realize now that they were supposed to take five of us back to the judges. They agreed they had searched to no avail, so they just led the four of us back." 

"At the time I didn't think about it. I was confused about being voted out and then asked to come back. But now I remember how the interns said to each other that he, Louis, must have already left. It was odd and I didn't understand at the time. I was trying to stop crying like a fool. They lead us back in and we got offered to be put together as a group. After that I thought about it a few times, that there was supposed to be this fifth member, but things started hitting us fast and it was somethig I stopped thinking about eventually and just forgot. Until tonight. When I saw Louis and we worked together as a team it was like he was supposed to be a piece of us. It felt that way to me, anyway. But he saw you and he bolted." 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If angsty-regret-story-endings leave you as strung out they do me...maybe look for the third part of the series which picks up with them in Simon Cowell's office with working title of "piece of you". The second part of the series is going up in as quick a fashion as I can manage but SKIP it if you hate the dark stuff, because why on earth would Louis be with a troll? The content of "why" will be reviewed in "piece of you" so no need to wallow in trigger-land if you prefer not. "Dark Piece" is a look into the mind of a person who would stalk and manipulate. I hope to make it a short, short wallow in darkness and make the wait for the third part not too long...so count on typos...;D


End file.
